EPA Contest Asks Energy-Fattened Buildings to “Work Off the Waste”
Taking inspiration from NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” in which contestants compete to see who can lose the most weight, the Environmental Protection Agency has devised a similar game for building owners: the Energy Star National Building Competition. The contest pits 14 buildings against each other to see who can cut their energy consumption the most.
Participating are an office building in Manhattan, a JC Penney store in southern California, a family health center in Cleveland, a Maryland Sears store, Virginia Beach convention center and elementary schools in New Jersey and Colorado, among others. The program encourages them to cut energy consumption by remembering to turn off lights, switch to energy efficient light bulbs, unplug unused phone chargers, use programmable thermostats and more.
200 buildings vied for inclusion in the competition. The 14 contestants will be ranked on how they reduced energy consumption from September 2009 to August 2010. They are required to use an array of energy efficiency tools devised by the EPA and Department of Energy. The path to winning lies in the reduction of kilowatt-hours, but along the way the buildings will save money and help fight climate change.
The EPA’s Energy Star online energy tracking tool, called the Portfolio Manager, is being used to monitor the buildings throughout the year. The winner will be announced on October 26, 2010 at the final “weigh-in.”
The contest is designed to bring awareness to the energy consumption of commercial buildings in the United States. According to an EPA press release, commercial buildings account for 17 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions at a cost over $100 billion per year. Some 30 percent of energy used in those buildings is wasted. That is why the Energy Star program exists, and why the EPA is putting on the National Building Competition. According to the New York Times, Energy Star users reported $17 billion in energy savings last year alone.
Photo Credit: Marilyn Burgess
Posted on April 28th in Solar News by Dan.